


Stop Before We Lose Control

by I_stole_a_cannon



Series: Jedi's Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation [13]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Sickfic, the masters are sick and the padawans have to stall, vaguely topical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:26:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27037921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_stole_a_cannon/pseuds/I_stole_a_cannon
Summary: 24 Hour bugs are what most call less than ideal with a war going onOR:The masters sick and it's up to the Padawans to stall.
Series: Jedi's Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1328081
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	Stop Before We Lose Control

**Author's Note:**

> Okay yeah, it took forever. But in my defense the world ended, and then my muse left the building, and the it came back, and then school started. look, long story short is that I'm bad at updating, but here have a new one.
> 
> come find us on Tumblr at: the-jedis-guide

Alyrisa woke up to find the temple  _ bizarrely  _ silent. Verilya was still tucked in and dead asleep, the girl could sleep through a Separatist bombing and only wake up when the rubble and dust settled. She wandered into the hall outside of her dorm and it was still quiet. She cautiously walked out and into the main halls of the temple where she still found it quiet. There were a couple of younglings milling about but they were also cautious and concerned. Alyrisa almost struck up her lightsaber when she heard Caledance yell from the med bay.

_ “Anakin Skywalker I swear if you do not get back into bed right this fucking second, I’m putting you in restraints!” _ It was harsh and exhausted and Alyrisa knew if she didn’t go now, Caledance might actually make good on her threat. Alyrisa ran to the medbay where she found most of the Jedi Masters lying in bed with looks of various degrees of illness. Master Luminara seemed mostly okay if a bit shaky, Master Secura in the same state, while Master Windu and Anakin looked like death incarnate. She thought she heard Master Windu muttering something about being a “righteous man” and Anakin’s smirk clearly read his delirium.

“Cal, what’s the damage?” Alyrisa asked as she pulled a bit of her cloak over her nose.

“One of the younglings brought a flu from the Mid Rim. They were seemingly unaffected, but most of the masters are down for the count. At least for the day.” Caledance said as she read the chart.

“How long have you been up?” Alyrisa asked.

“Since about sunrise, it’s when I usually wake up,”

“In need of caff?”

“Probably, but we have to figure out how we’re gonna make it through the day, Kenobi keeps mumbling something about a campaign that’s supposed to start today, and I suspect we’ll be getting a comm by mid morning when they don’t show up.” Caledance said.

“Right, all call in the comm room?” Alyrisa said. 

“I’ll get the comm running in here, if I can limit the contact, then all the better.” Caledance said. Alyrisa nodded and went back to the hall of dorms and started banging on doors.

_ “We’ve got an all call in three! Comm room! I will drag you out of bed if you don’t show!”  _ Alyrisa exclaimed as she went back into her room and dragged Verilya to the floor.

“OW! Al what the-”

“All call, we’ve got a situation.” Alyrisa said. Verilya scrambled to her feet and shoved her boots on.

“What kind of situation?”   


“I’ll explain once everyone’s there,” Alyrisa said. The duo walked to the comm room where Caledance joined them by hologram, Cyrian was still pulling her hair out of her face, Kayha kept running her hand over her face, Kladinestra looked like she was going to collapse onto the floor after probably spending most of the night working on the droids again, Ahsoka was still blinking the sleep out of her eyes, Barriss was stoic as ever, and Heleilei was also just about to pass out again.

“What gives Al?” Kladinestra asked, “All calls are for bombings and truth serum results.” 

“I wish it was something that easy,” Alyrisa said. “Cal,” she said prompting the medic to explain. Caledance straightened her posture as she plugged something into the computer on her end to show up on the central console.

“Meet the Lexrul Flu. It’s a 24 hour flu that knocks whoever contracts it on its ass for 24 hours,” she started showing a diagram. “Good news is once it’s infected a certain number of people it usually dies, so when it came into the temple, it’s likely that the handful of people who interacted with the patient zero now have it and I’m not going to have to worry about a flood of you guys coming in. It’s also observed to be non lethal, so we’re not looking for a cure. The bad news is it’s gonna be a  _ rough _ 24 hours since everyone here is either incoherent, delusional, shivering, shaking, and just generally not having a good time.” She added. 

“So the masters who have it…” Cyrian posed.

“Are functionally sitting ducks. None of them are leaving the temple, or even this room for the next 24 hours.” 

“So there’s our challenge: we have to run the temple like nothing’s wrong.” Ahsoka said.

“Bingo,” Alyrisa said. She was going to start elaborating tasks when the first exterior comm came up. Alyrisa turned to everyone, who seemed to agree that she was the best person to pick it up. She accepted the comm and she found Senator Amidala looking at her. “Senator, what do I owe the pleasure?” Alyrisa asked cautiously, looking to Ahsoka in case she needed a cover quick.

“Padawan Dorian correct?” Senator Amidala asked and Alyrisa did her best both to not to flush at the recognition and have her brain spiral into overdrive as to  _ why _ the Senator knew her specifically. 

“Yes Senator,”

“Have you seen Ahsoka?” She asked. Alyrisa gestured for Ahsoka to come into frame. 

“Senator?” Ahsoka asked with a bit of confusion as soon as Alyrisa stepped out of frame.

“Ahsoka, where are you? I thought Master Skywalker asked you to sit in on committees with me?” The senator asked. Alyrisa was grateful to be out of shot because she could hardly keep the smirk off her face. Ahsoka nodded once and turned to Alyrisa who also gave her a nod.

“I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” Ahsoka said. Senator Amidala ended the call and Alyrisa finally let a chuckle escape her.

“Y’know, if I had the money to burn, I’d support Leils’s hair brained bet at this rate.” Alyrisa said.

“Doubt it, but I should go. Will you all be alright?”

“Keep your comm on,” Kayha said.

“And we’ll ping you if needed.” Verilya added. Ahsoka nodded and left the comm room. Alyrisa retook her position.

“Right, Veri, Cyr, and Kay, I want you three to take youngling training. Nes, stay here with me in case I need to start a technical malfunction, Leils,”

“Creche duty, already on it.” Heleilei said. Alyrisa chuckled at that, stars her force sensitivity freaky sometimes.

“Cal do you want another set of hands?” Alyrisa asked. 

“I wouldn’t turn them down,”

“Barriss?” Alyrisa said. “Mind working in the medbay?” 

“I’ll do what I can.” Bariss said.

“That’s all I ask,” Alyrisa said with a smile. “Alright, if anyone has issues or if anyone comms, forward it my way. The ongoing cover is a minor technical malfunction. If anything gets added or elaborated, I’ll tell you. We’ll reconvene at lunch to see where we stand and switch up duties, got it?” Alyrisa said. The group all nodded and went off to their taskings, leaving only Alyrisa and Kladinestra. 

“What’s first?” Kladinestra asked.

“See if you can hack the logs and check who’s currently out of the temple on campaign. If we know who we could be getting calls from, it might ease my mind.” Alyrisa said.

“You mean to tell me you haven’t been listening in?” Kladinestra teased.

“Not within the past week, and even if I had there must’ve been movement.” Alyrisa remarked as she paced around the comm room. 

“Master Mundi and Master Halsey are currently on campaign,” Kladinestra said as she pulled up the movement of the GAR. “Looks like the Kenobi and Skywalker dream team are supposed to leave for Felucia today,” she added and with that the comm chirped.

“Where’s it coming from?” Alyrisa asked as she squared herself in front of it.

“Where else?”

“ _ The Resolute _ ?” 

“Yup,”

“Stars, let it not be Yularen, that man freaks me out,” Alyrisa as she nodded for Kladinestra to put the call through. They both let out a small sigh of relief when Captain Rex was the one making the call. 

“Captain, what can I help you with?” Alyrisa asked with a fake eased smile. She’d hung out with Anakin enough to know who Rex was, and that he was way too loyal a soldier to be told the truth.   
“Padawan Dorian, you wouldn’t happen to know where General Skywalker is would you?” He asked.

“He and General Kenobi left the temple an hour ago heading for  _ The Resolute _ .” She said with a faux look of confusion. “Are they not there yet?”

“No sir,”

“Well, knowing the two of them, they must’ve just gotten into some trouble before joining you. I would try to get a hold of them, but unfortunately the Temple is suffering some technical difficulties that might make our communication spotty at best,” for effect, Kladinestra fuzzed out Alyrisa briefly before stabilizing the connection again.

“Very well, I’ll notify the Admiral.” Rex said.

“Negative, negative,” Alyrisa started to say, knowing if Rex told Yularen, Yularen would have to tell the Chancellor and if there was  _ anyone  _ Alyrisa didn’t want to deal with more than Yularen it would be the Chancellor. “If they don’t show up in two hours, then we’ll try and update the situation.” She covered. 

“Alright…” Rex said, very clearly suspicious, but he ended the comm and Alyrisa dropped to a squat and let out a sigh. 

“ _ Fuck, _ I hate lying to Rex,” she muttered. 

“I know, but it’s at least one of your more reasonable lies.” Kladinestra said. Another beep from the comm and Alyrisa almost screamed. 

“Where from?”   


“Kamino,”   


“Shaak Ti,”

“Ready?” Kladinestra asked. “Or do you want me to take it?” Alyrisa stood up and eased her breathing again before accepting the comm.

“Hello Master,” Alyrisa said. She liked to think that as one of Verilya’s friends, she was relatively friendly with Shaak Ti, but again lying to her was going to make her lose her mind, also she was curious as to why she was calling from her station on Kamino.

“Alyrisa, it is good to see you, is Master Windu around?” She asked. 

“Unfortunately Master Windu is currently dealing with the technical difficulties the temple is currently suffering,” Kladinestra again fuzzed the message briefly before stabilizing it again. “I can have a message taken and scrambled for him to recieve when he’s finished.” Alyrisa said. 

“Very well,” Shaak Ti said as a textual communication came in and was scrambled for later reading. “Is my padawan around?”    


“Veri’s helping Master Yoda with the younglings today.” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Alyrisa furrowed her brow. She knew what she was doing after this call. 

“Ah, that’s good. Thank you Alyrisa.” She said and the comm ended. 

“What’s on your mind?” Kladinestra asked. 

“Is Master Yoda on campaign?” Alyrisa asked. Kladinestra pulled up the troop movement again and her brows furrowed as Alyrisa’s had.

“No… he’s supposed to be here.”

“I’m going to check on Cal and Barriss, ping me if another comm comes through,” Alyrisa said. She left the comm room and started to wander toward the med bay. There, she was greeted by a body collapsing almost on top of her as she tried to steady it and herself. “Cal! You’ve got an escapee!” She said. She heard Caledance’s determined stride she got when she was working, and a huff that escaped. 

“Bar, please help Al get Kenobi back to bed.” Caledance said. Barriss came over and helped Kenobi’s arm over her shoulder as Alyrisa got his other arm over her shoulder and they walked the Master back into the medbay. It looked almost the same as it had this morning except for the cuffed and sleeping Anakin Skywalker, Master Windu now muttering something about “supersuits” and “the city being in danger”. Both girls unceremoniously dropped Kenobi onto the bed where Caledance stuck his wrist in one part of the binder and pinned the other to the bed frame. 

“What can I help you with Al? Since I’m assuming you didn’t come here to wrangle Kenobi back into his bed.” Caledance asked.

“Is Master Yoda here?” Alyrisa asked. Caledance picked up a datapad and then looked around.

“Nope, is he on campaign?”

“No…” Alyrisa muttered. Where the hell was their resident frog gremlin?    


“You know, now that you mention it, I haven’t seen Master Plo or Master Fisto either. If they avoided the illness,”   


“You’d think they’d be here…” Alyrisa said as she dragged her hand through her hair. “Oh I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” She said.

“Bring it up at the lunch meetup which is in,” Caledance checked her clock, “10 minutes. I’ll come in by holo.”

“Perfect, do you want me to do an assistant swap?” Alyrisa asked.

“If you need to, I suspect that Cyrian’s on the verge of needing something new to do.” Caledance said. Alyrisa nodded and gestured for Barriss to come with her. The duo left the med bay.

“I’m sure Master Yoda has a reasonable explanation concerning his whereabouts.” Barriss said. 

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Alyrisa said. “If he does, then we still have to run the temple, if he doesn’t then it means he hung us out to dry without a chance.” She added as she came back into the comm room. Kladinestra was scrolling through something on a datapad as they walked in and not too far behind them were the rest of the padawans, all in various states of satisfied but exhausted. That didn’t really surprise Alyrisa as they were running the temple functionally on half the staff they were supposed to be. They waited for Caledance and Ahsoka to come in on hologram before getting the check in underway. 

“First question, how’s everyone faring?” Alyrisa asked.

“If I have to listen to one more senator that isn’t Padme or Riyo, I’m going to stab a statue,” Ahsoka said.

“Don’t forget Bail, he’s still on the Good Senators list.” Kayha said. Ahoska nodded.

“Right, well I’m afraid you’re stuck there until Padme releases you, have you seen Master Yoda there at all?” Alyrisa asked.

“No, why would Master Yoda be at the Senate building?”   


“It’s because he isn’t here.” Kladinestra replied. All the padawans looked amongst each other and then turned to Caledance.   


“He isn’t here either,” She said.

“I’m going to try comming him after the meeting. Cyrian, Barriss, you two switch places. Nes is still gonna help me out here, Veri,”

“Kay and I are good to keep going,” Verilya cut in.

“And I’m still good in the creche,” Heleilei added.

“Alright, we’re almost done people, we just have to survive a few more hours.” Alyrisa said. The padawans nodded and left for their respective duties. “Nes?”

“Already on it, found a frequency and scrambling now,”

“Let’s hope he picks up…” Alyrisa muttered. The duo waited on vaguely bated breath as the comm waited to be accepted. 

The hologram showed Master Yoda, somewhere non descript enough to not be picked up by comm.

“Master Yoda,”

“Problem is there young padawan?”

“Yes Master, I’m afraid I must ask where you and Master Plo and Master Fisto are, something’s happened at the temple and the Padawans are doing the best we can, but we could use the support,”

“Handling something we are. Far side of Coruscant.” Master Yoda said. Alyrisa took a deep breath.

“I understand Master,” she muttered.

“Return soon we will,” Master Yoda said and then hung up. Alyrisa turned to Kladinestra.

“Can a frog gremlin lie?” Alyrisa asked. 

“No but he can omit things,” Kladinestra replied, “point is we’re still stuck.” She added.

“Yeah no kidding!” Alyrisa exclaimed. She let out a groan of frustration as she ran a hand through her hair.

“Good news is they might be back soon,” Kladinestra tried to console

“Soon with Master Yoda can be in a minute to a week depending on what mood you caught him in.” They looked around the room as Alyrisa started to pace around the comm room. “What in the blazes are they doing on the other side of Coruscant?” She asked, “there’s nothing over there, at least not anything to warrant the Grand Master and two other Masters…” 

“Maybe it’s top secret?” Kladinestra tried to justify.

“Then you know what I’m going to ask you,”

“On it,” Kladinestra said as she started looking through the files. Alyrisa was trying to lower her frustration levels when Caledance came in on comm.   


“Please tell me you have good news,” Alyrisa said.

“I actually do, most of the fevers have broken, and except for Master Windu muttering something about the Council making a terrible decision and him electing to ignore it, they’ll all be fine once the sedatives have worn off,”   


“Oh please tell me you got that admission on video, could prove useful for future arguments.” Alyrisa said with a grin.

“Unfortunately I didn’t, but Hawks might have.”   
  
“Brilliant,” another comm pinged and Kladinestra looked up from her decoding process. 

“Bad news,”

“That’s  _ The Resolute _ again isn’t it?” Alyrisa said. 

“I’ll call you back,” Caledance said as her image faded out. Alyrisa and Kladinestra looked at each other with a slight fear, but both nodded. Whatever or whoever came through on that comm they could handle. Alyrisa accepted the comm and Admiral Yularen came up. Alyrisa steadied her breathing and nodded to the Admiral.

“Admiral, what can I do for you?” She asked with the utmost professionalism. It was hard to tell nuance on hologram, but she saw his glare clear as day. 

“Young lady do you know where General Kenobi and General Skywalker are?” He demanded.  _ Yes, in the medbay downstairs but you don’t need to know that. _

“Pulled for a Jedi mission. Internal affair. They’ll be headed your way when they are finished.” She stated with a glare of her own. Yularen let out a huff and pinched the bridge of his nose.    


“And when was the Council planning on telling us this?” He asked. 

“I believe they had hoped that it wouldn’t take this long, and unfortunately the temple has had a communications issue,” without a glance off Yularen, Kladinestra fuzzed the message at that statement, “we’ve had mild difficulty getting into contact with them, and I’m assuming you have as well.” 

“Where is General Windu?” Yularen asked.  _ Shit, just hang up old man _ . 

“Helping with the technology issues. If you need something passed along, I’d be happy to scramble a message for you,” Alyrisa said. Yularen simply shook his head and ended the call. Alyrisa sighed and started setting up her own comm that she held with the other padawans.

“Who’re you calling?” Kladinestra asked.

“Ahsoka, then Master Fisto, because we’re gonna need help sooner rather than later.”

“Why Ahsoka?”   


“See if she can keep the Chancellor busy, the moment Yularen reports to him, the moment we have bigger issues.” She said. “Ahsoka you busy?” She asked as soon as she got a connection established.

“Not really, currently thinking of punching Senator Taa, but that can be put off.”

“Is the Chancellor with you?”

“He’s not in the meeting no, why?”   


“I need you to stall him, distract him with something, I’m afraid Yularen might try to report to him,” Alyrisa replied.

“I can see if I can get Padme to help,”   


“No! We can’t let her in on this,”   


“I wasn’t planning on it, don’t worry Al, some of us can lie without a script,” Ahsoka said and ended the call. Alyrisa groaned and went back to the main comm. 

“Nes,”

“Got it, Master Fisto.” Kladinestra said. The comm chimed as they waited for it to go through. 

“Ah, Padawan Dorian, how can I help you?” Master Fisto said when he picked up.

“Master Fisto, we really need you and Master Yoda and Master Plo back at the temple,  _ now.” _

“What is the matter, young one?”

“Admiral Yularen is  _ definitely  _ going to come to the temple looking for Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi, who are currently laid up in bed ill with Lexrul flu along with a large member of masters right now and I don’t think it would shine well on the Council for it to be revealed that the Padawans have been running the temple for most of the day!” Alyrisa exclaimed with a grip of absolute anger. She was frustrated and the exhaustion of the day was hitting her as she stared at the Master who seemed to have been aware of this the whole time.

“I will be there shortly, not to worry,”   


“Hurry, please.” Alyrisa said as the comm cut off. She let out a groan of frustration as she ran a hand through her hair.    


“What’s the back up plan?” Kladinestra asked. “Assuming that they don’t make it in time,”   


“We do what we’ve been doing all day, and we stall. We’ve had a whole day of practice,” Alyrisa said as she walked out of the comm center and back down towards the medbay. 

“Are you certain it’ll work?”   


“Nope, but we gotta try.” Alyrisa said, “Stay here until they come, ping me when the ship lands.”

“On it,” Kladinestra said. She wandered with determination and was impressed when they weren’t greeted by an escaping body. 

“Cal, can anyone stand?” Alyrisa asked. 

“Not really, the sedatives were pretty potent, so it’ll be another couple of hours.” Caledance said as she gestured to the room of sleeping masters. Alyrisa held back a comment about how Separatists would kill for an opportunity like this. 

“Great, so we have to hope that Master Fisto gets here before the Senate representatives do. Who are we betting on?”

“Yularen, probably,” Caledance remarked. There was a ping on Alyrisa’s comm from Kladinestra.

“Okay, showtime, wish me luck.” Alyrisa said as she straightened up her robe.

“Good luck Aly,” Cyrian said from her corner, Alyrisa looked over and nodded. She wandered toward the front of the Temple. 

When she reached the front door she grinned as she spotted Master Fisto already speaking to Yularen and Senator Organa with his usual peaceful smile. 

“Ah, Padawan Dorian, I’m glad you could join us,” Yularen said.

“Master Fisto was filling us in on the situation. I wish the Senate had been informed of the drill they were conducting.” Senator Organa said.    


“Right, well that was part of the drill,” Alyrisa said with a smile. Master Fisto pulled her into his side with a smile. “A worse case scenario run you know?” She added with ease.

“Well, a little bit more warning would be nice.” Admiral Yularen said as he went back to his speeder. Senator Organa nodded and smiled with a wink. As soon as the speeder was gone, Alyrisa released a sigh as she looked at Master Fisto.    


“Thank you for coming so quickly, I  _ cannot stand  _ dealing with Yularen.” She said with a chuckle. 

“Oh yes, he does have a slightly intimidating figure.” He said. “What did you say they were down with?”   


“The tail end of Lexrul flu, their fevers have broken but most of them have tried to work so Cal has sedated them.” She explained.

“That sounds about right, well then, I suppose I can give help where I can.”   


“Yeah, that’d be nice.” Alyrisa said. Master Fisto laughed and pulled them back into his side. They walked back into the temple and Alyrisa let out at least three sighs of relief. 

It didn’t stop a small amount of rage festering from in a small corner of her core over the situation.

  
  



End file.
